Uyajola 9/9 uTata’kho: Missionaries and Black Masculinities

Abstract

This article argues that contemporary Black masculinities in South Africa have been shaped, in various ways, by nineteenth-century missionary depictions of masculinity. Furthermore, yesteryear depictions by missionaries problematis-ed Black masculinities and portrayed African men as uncivilised brutes with no sense of morality. The article presents an assessment of contemporary depictions of Black men on the DSTV shows, Uyajola 9/9 and uTata’kho, in relation to missionary depictions of Black men. Anchored in decolonial thought, this analysis seeks to unpack the problematised Black masculinities that were reinvented in mass media.